Stop Giving Boring Presentations — Follow These 6 Presentations Hacks to Captivate Your Audience The art of business communication is being revolutionized, with corporate presentations at the forefront of this transformation.
By Vikas Agrawal Edited by Micah Zimmerman
Key Takeaways
- Ordinary presentations are too commonplace now and often fail to have an impact.
- You need something new and innovative to stand out and impress stakeholders.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
In the dynamic and data-driven corporate world, effective communication is paramount, and one of the key tools for this communication is corporate presentations. Corporate presentations are the perfect way to communicate ideas, proposals and facts to your business's internal audience as well as external stakeholders. In fact, over 35 million PowerPoint presentations are given daily to more than 500 million people.
However, they must be updated to match the latest trends and boost engagement with the modern audience. To help you create contemporary corporate presentations, let's explore the top trends in corporate presentation design and explain how you can leverage them to make your presentations stand out.
1. Digital presentations with creative and personalized illustrations
Thanks to the rise of digital scrollable slide shows, you no longer need to carry printed slides to meetings. These are not only convenient but also interactive and allow real-time updates. Moreover, custom digital illustrations are emerging as a quick and attractive alternative suited for modern digital presentations. Don't replace all real photographs with digital graphics, though. Instead, focus on images of your company, offerings, market and customers instead of generic stock photos. At the same time, add on-brand and contextual illustrations wisely.
At the cost of repetition, you must remember to maintain context! Imagine a bank's budget presentation having colorful flowery backgrounds. This will naturally dilute the company's professional image, but it might look good in a pitch deck for a company that produces toys.
Related: 10 Presentation Tips and Hacks You Need to Know
2. Visual storytelling
Pairing storytelling with visuals creates a powerful impact because visual storytelling enhances your message's effectiveness and memorability. To choose the right visuals, pick images that align with your business's story and evoke the desired emotion. Ensure visuals complement, not just repeat, your narrative. For example, use a 3D model instead of a blueprint or a line chart to depict growth predictions.
In fact, you can also use videos like explainers or case studies where necessary to leverage the popularity and power of video content, which forms around 82% of online traffic. Don't hesitate to go a bit unorthodox — like how Peleton's pitch deck gripped its audience by incorporating visuals of its exercise equipment.
Related: 6 Powerful Brand Storytelling Tips For Marketers
3. Harness the power of data visualization
In the era of big data, the vast amount of information can be overwhelming, but data visualization comes to the rescue! Data visualization transforms complex data into visual content like graphs or charts, simplifying understanding and interpretation. It reveals patterns and trends, turning numerical data into an engaging visual story. It's like turning a spreadsheet full of numbers into a colorful, interactive, and engaging story.
For example, Porsche's Company Presentation is a sleek and polished presentation that uses multiple data visualization tools such as bar charts, maps, and line charts to visualize and simplify complex data.
4. 3D realism and immersive technologies
3D realism and immersive technologies like AR and VR are rising, enhancing the corporate world's visual presentations. 3D realism adds depth to create engaging visuals, while AR and VR offer interactive experiences and transport viewers to different realities. Unsurprisingly, these technologies can multiply the effectiveness and memorability of your presentations manifold. The global AR and VR market is projected to hit $296.9 billion by 2024, reflecting their growing adoption in sectors like corporate presentations.
IKEA's Place app is a great example of the application of mixed reality to create real-time presentations based on the actual world. With the app, customers can virtually place furniture in their homes to see how it looks and fits.
5. Gripping the audience with interactive presentations
Interactive presentations are a great way to engage your audience and make your presentation more impactful and memorable. They require the integration of engaging elements such as quizzes, polls, and interactive infographics to foster a dialogue with your audience. This two-way communication makes your presentation more engaging, impactful, and memorable.
I recall a presentation by a healthcare company years ago where they used an interactive infographic to explain the impact of a new drug. The audience could click on different infographic parts to learn more about the drug's effects on various body systems.
Remember to actively promote audience involvement by encouraging your audience to participate in polls, answer quizzes, ask questions, and interact with the shared presentations, if any.
6. The power of expressive and inclusive artistry
One key corporate presentation design trend is the authentic portrayal of diverse personalities and styles. Beyond unique branding, it's about inclusive design representing all ages, races, genders, and abilities. This approach celebrates societal diversity by ensuring everyone feels represented and connecting businesses with a wider audience.
According to a 2022 study by Adobe, 71% of people feel better about companies that demonstrate diversity in their advertising. This confirms that the audience would generally like and prefer inclusive companies. This trend is often reflected in the presentations of global tech companies, such as in Google's scrollable belonging page that presents their efforts and achievements in the sphere of diversity and inclusion. Peleton's pitch deck, which we saw earlier, also includes the element of diversity by adding images of users from various ethnic backgrounds.
Ready to design a cutting-edge presentation?
In the modern corporate presentation design landscape, the interplay of art and science is more significant than ever. It's not just about crafting creative presentations but also understanding your audience deeply and creating engaging experiences that captivate and impress them. And you must repeat this frequently to adjust to changing customer tastes and market conditions.
As we explore this exciting area, it's crucial to remember that the ultimate goal of a corporate presentation design is to communicate effectively with your audience. So, as you design your presentations, ask yourself: Are they inclusive and engaging? Are they leveraging the latest technologies and data visualization techniques? And most importantly, are they effectively communicating your message to your audience?
